It felt like Roman Anthony was an instant star for the Boston Red Sox upon his call-up last season, but the truth of the matter was that it took a while for the hot-shot youngster to truly get going. Over his first 15 major league games, Anthony hit just .114/.291/.272.
The end result was a .292/.396/.463 performance over 71 games. We weren't complaining. It looked like the Red Sox had a perennial All-Star on their hands. Yet, thinking back on those first few games, it might have been the start of a trend.
It's not uncommon for even the best prospects to initially struggle during the first few games of their big league debut, but what has gone on since makes it seem like there's more than meets the eye.
Anthony started 2026 in a miserable slump, hitting just .229/.354/.321 before his finger ligament injury. That almost doesn't tell the whole story, though. The 22-year-old began to turn it on once the calendar flipped to May, with five hits and two walks over 15 plate appearances before landing on the IL.
The Red Sox better hope that Roman Anthony is just a slow starter and that he'll get in gear in time for October
After missing nearly four months, it was as if the youngster was starting his season again from scratch. Initially, he hit the ground running going 10-for-22 over his first five games back. But then he hit a wall. Over his last 11 games, Anthony is hitting just .149/.216/.213. His eagle eye at the plate has disappeared with just a 7.8% walk rate during that span, compared to an alarming 35.3% K-rate.
The struggles have led to calls for him to be dropped lower in the lineup. That might be a temporary solution, but even more important is that he snaps out of his funk soon.
Plenty of players throughout baseball history have gotten off to slow starts only to rebound; some have even made slow starts a habit throughout their careers. Habitually starting off behind the eight ball isn't ideal, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not catastrophic, either.
2026 saw plenty of prominent players get off to ice cold starts. Fernando Tatis Jr. didn't hit until nearly June. Old friend Alex Bregman looked washed with the Chicago Cubs before turning on the jets in the second half. Caleb Durbin no longer looks like a tragic mistake (September struggles, notwithstanding).
Given how long Anthony was on the shelf, it's almost as if he has had two Opening Days. If he truly is a chronically slow starter, that explains away the issues we're currently seeing. He's certainly not worried about it.
“I’m right where I want to be… I came back with enough time to get a good number of plate appearances, and to fail like I am right now and to succeed like I did in the beginning, and then kind of meet in the middle… [The playoffs are] what you play for after such a long year… At the end of the day, those few weeks are the only thing that really matters,” Anthony said.
It almost sounds as if Anthony was planning on this being a process, with the goal of getting back on track for the playoffs. Now, he'll have to make sure that comes to fruition; otherwise, the Red Sox will be in rough shape once the postseason rolls around.
Add us as a preferred source on Google